Faux Bamboo Furniture

The other morning on craigslist I found a faux bamboo dresser for $30! It was an absolute steal so I had to get it. It wasn't until I picked it up that I found out it had been in a smoke filled house and smelled awful. I drove home with my windows down and changed my clothes when I got home because the smell was so strong.

I let the dresser air out a couple days in the back parking area of our apartment and then moved it down to the basement. I hope to clean it up, sand it down and repaint it. If I can get the smoke smell out I know it will be a beautiful piece of furniture.

In honor of my new dresser (who has seen better days) I wanted to show you some great faux bamboo pieces that create another level of interest and texture to a room.

Faux bamboo side table

 Faux bamboo nesting tables

 Faux bamboo credenza

 My two favorite gold faux bamboo mirrors which are both show in pretty pink rooms. I would give anything to have one of these.

 Faux bamboo chippendale chairs in a Jonathan Adler design

Faux bamboo chippendale chairs in the home of designer Diane Bergeron

images via pinterest, centsational girl, lonny

How do you feel about faux bamboo? My husband called it wicker. No! It is not wicker. Some people still like wicker, I am not one of those people. Never did like it and I don't think I ever will.

ONE MONTH- Building a mini closet

We've been in our new place for one month now, but half of that time we've spent driving around the country visiting family. We got unpacked fairly quickly because we had family come stay with us soon after we arrived. However, with twice as much square footage, all of our unpacked boxes have left every room looking a bit empty. I have already started projects and have great plans to fill our place.

One of those projects was addressing the closet space issue. As much as my husband and I LOVE our St. Louis apartment, we have one tiny closet in our bedroom. I mean tiny. We each have a 2 1/2 foot rod to hang all our clothes.  My husband uses his nightstand for the rest of our clothes and I use our dresser, but this organized mess has been sitting in our room for the last month.

A bit unsightly. My first thought was to have my husband build us more storage, a mini closet or dresser looking type of closet. After my husband reminded me that he does not own the tools to do such a project right now my mind went to Ikea. Ikea has inexpensive storage solutions, but I had googled Ikea locations long before we moved out to St. Louis and I was a bit sad to find our nearest store to be 256 miles away. After the thousands of miles we've driven in the last month I was not about to hop in the car for another road trip. So, after a bit more searching, Target came to the rescue and I was able to buy individual storage pieces to assemble my own mini closet. Here is what we ended up with.

 

 It isn't a custom built walk in closet, but it works.

Coral, Gold and Cobalt

Our apartment is completely white. I mean white. I am still deciding if I want a color palette for our new living room or if I should just go for a complete mix and match.

There are questions to ask for each; Does my color palette have to be continuous throughout the entire apartment because of the small space? If not, how different in color can I make each room where they are all in such close proximity? When going eclectic do I make sure nothing matches? Can I really use all finishes?

Do what you like, not what you think others will think looks good and DON'T over think it! I have a bunch of favorite pieces that are very different in texture and finish that will look great thrown together, but if I decide to follow a color palette I am definitely leaning this way. . .

I have become absolutely obsessed with Coral and Gold separately. Why not throw them together?

 

P.S. Tomorrow we head back to the land of no internet. I will be MIA until Monday I am guessing.

IKEA Surprises

My husband and I are in Iowa for the weekend for a wedding and it is first time in a week that I've had internet. I promise there are some crazy stories to come about the past week and our move to St. Louis, but for now I thought I would show you some of my favorite things that IKEA just came out with.

I am so sad that we are no longer in reasonable driving distance since our move.

Looks similar to a Beni ourain rug. This square rug would great in our living room, but I might be looking for more color

These square tiles might make a great look on any floor. I am thinking about it for all our hardwood

Gorgeous coffee table

Gorgeous sidetable

and matching console table

These would look great in any room with all matching bold colored frames

This platter would make a great catch all tray 

 

These would make great gift boxes as well as containers for my jewelry

Cute bowls

I just love these

 

I know these are just spray bottles, but I wouldn't mind one of each color

Coming up for Air

Hey All,

I know I am not around like I should be, but this is what life is looking like right now. . .

I am sitting in a bunch of boxes and furniture waiting for my husband to bring us dinner. We just picked up the Uhaul, tomorrow we pack it up and Sunday morning we leave for St. Louis! I am still super excited, but I am past exhausted. Hopefully I will be showing my face a bit more once we get into our new place.

I have so many ideas for our new apartment that I am excited to get going on and show you.

Our NEW OLD Apartment!!!

Last week my husband and I found an apartment and yesterday it officially became ours. We will be moving to St. Louis at the end of the month and I was getting a bit nervous with our housing situation. We didn't have one.

Today I would like to introduce you to, what I call, our NEW OLD apartment.

 (Living Room)

 (Dining Room)

(The kitchen will be a challenge which I am excited to get going on)

We love out new place! It is in a great location, close to the University, restaurants, the zoo, art museum, and a large and gorgeous park.

The apartment is twice the size of our current place, we decided a 2 bedroom was needed with my husband needing study space and plans for starting our family in the future. It has hardwood floors throughout, excluding the bathroom, we have GINORMOUS windows with the most amazing natural light, beautiful molding and a DISHWASHER! I have missed having a dishwasher since being married. It's amazing how you learn to appreciate the small things when you no longer have them.

I have begun tossing a bunch of our things in preparation for packing everything we own into a 6'x12' trailer. It will be a tight fit, but I can not wait to get to into our apartment and get to decorating. I already have the layout of every room planned out and a million projects on my To Do list.

I'm bAAAAAAAaaaaaaack.

Make sure you say that title in a creepy voice. That's how I said it.

SO! It has been a while. I am aware of that and I apologize for my long absence. With so many changes in life right now, I decided to take a step back from my blog and figure out where design fit into my life. Lucky for you, my husband and I, I figured it out. It fits into every aspect of my life. I can't ever stop thinking about it.

My husband and I have learned it is best to let me get all my design thoughts out into space so that I can focus on other aspects of life with a 100% mind, which means we are back in business!